The Ramblings of Peter

More Design Work. Plan to do some show flyer and album covers soon.

2012-01-28T18:24:00.000-08:00

Documentary Recommendation

2012-01-26T19:16:00.000-08:00

The Merchants of Cool. A PBS Doc from a few years back that's watchable free online (possibly only in the US)

Thoughts?

The Birds are lost

2012-01-23T15:28:00.000-08:00

Made this totally with Photoshop brushes

Star Wars and Youth Counter-Culture

2011-09-26T19:28:00.001-07:00

The youth of my generation grew up on Star Wars. We all wanted to be Luke Skywalker. Luke was a middle class kid from a farm whose family was wealthy enough to own property, and buy droids. Luke even had his own land speeder. His aunt and uncle were not rich enough however to pay for Luke’s education. So they wanted him to stay working and go to the academy the next year. Luke was desperate to escape the confines of his home town, especially since all of his cool friends went off to join “the rebellion”. He meets a wise old man who tries to convince Luke to find his own destiny, which Luke takes to mean jump right into the fight. Luke has some fun for awhile being chased by Tie fighters through the canyons of major cities, and finally feels victorious when he manages to throw his molotov cocktail into the window of a Death Star coffee shop.

In spite of all the things they have set to blaze, the rebellion has done little to actually stop the empire. Trying to wait the empire out, the rebellion takes to camping out on Hoth. Luke starts to learn that while the rebellion seemed glamorous back when he was on the farm, the day to day life of a solder involves freezing your ass off and getting attacked by wampas. Sooner or later, the empire shows up in riot gear with tear gas to clear the hippies off their property.

Luke finds a mentor to help him realize his own potential, but Luke cannot get his mind off all his friends still fighting the rebellion. The drug dealer he has become friends with and the girl that he has a crush on are being threatened by the empire. With the cardonite freeze of a dead end job for one, and exploitation and degradation for the other. Luke, thinking he knows everything after a week, rushes out to fight and gets his ass handed to him.

As it turns out, the slaves of the universe are too busy being slaves to join the rebellion, and so white kids of privilege took it upon themselves to fight in their stead. Furthermore, it is Luke’s own father that is the servant of the empire, which is the only reason Luke even exists and could be a middle class white guy taking on the empire to begin with.

Luke becomes dark. And when he is seen again after his defeat, he has gone from the all-white of his youth to all black. He deals with his enemies by choking them and making demands. When they resist, he destroys them without mercy. He hovers somewhere between Jedi and Sith.

When he rejoins the rebellion, he is not a hot shot pilot running from the police, but an activist trying to knock down the satellite dish protecting the new death star. For once, the rebellion is willing to put everything on the line instead of taking pot shots. Luke realizes that his dad knows he is on the mission, and turning himself in is the only way to distract Vader long enough to give the mission a chance to succeed. Luke is brought before the disgusting old man holding the reigns of the empire. Luke’s father tells him to get a real job and a hair cut and to join the empire/military/corporate world like he did. Luke finally convinces his father that the empire kinda sucks because it fucks so many people over, and in his dying moments, his father is redeemed.

The rebellion, for its part, paid a heavy cost for finally putting its fleet on the line but they did take out the new death star, the flag ship and several other ships. A new republic is born. doubtlessly some centuries later a new empire arises, and the cycle repeats.

Viva revolution. Hail caesar. Viva revolution. Thanks George Lucas for ruining my generation.

2011-08-30T21:54:00.001-07:00

I take life completely seriously and as a complete joke at the same time. Maybe because i dont want to be the butt of the joke...

Subject of a Future Blog/Video

2011-08-09T23:11:00.000-07:00

Life Offline

2011-07-23T20:50:00.000-07:00

Since I seem to get comments and e-mails constantly about my absence, I figured I should write a blog, as I still don’t have internet in my apartment, which makes it too difficult to upload a video.
Long story short, a shuffling of roommates has left me without internet where I live for the past few months. In all honestly, this doesn’t bother me all that much. If I really need to get online, the means are freely available to me, albeit slow wi-fi at school, a friend’s house or a coffee shop. I also don’t care to have my name on the bill and I have been too busy working and doing other things to even bother with the issue. It will be resolved soon enough, and not only will I be back to doing things in the online world in the near future, I plan to improve and deliver more elaborate and polished productions in the future.
I have been doing a lot in photography and video in the past year. I have shot several videos of shows for local bands (involving multi camera editing), made a feature length documentary, and made a music video, aside from my own personal projects. I also have numerous other projects lined up.
Now that I am nearly completed school, I am aiming to get into something like technical writing, and so I would like to learn more about multimedia and film production, as that (can be) a part of technical writing. Aside from the fact that knowing a slew of programs and being able to utilize them to create high end presentations would give me an edge in the tech writing field, I could also use those skills for my own purposes, of which I have many.
The other side to that is that I have ideas for creating original content for Youtube. Not only would this give me incentive to learn new programs and sharpen my knowledge of the programs I know, but given the amount of money some people make off the site, I may reach a point where I say “get a day job? Why bother?” (although I would like to run a store with my friends).
Right now, I am aiming to make more polished, multi-media presentations. Do less extemporaneous speaking and also go back to my roots and do more off the wall shit like Lego movies, shows with action figures, cartoons, and music videos, etc. All original content. (Don’t worry. I am not giving up talking philosophical bullshit)
I am also taking with friends that have ideas they would like to produce, as well as doing more documentaries and music video work.
Given the fact that music recording, video, photography, software, etc is what I have in the last 8 years poured more effort to than even college, it all seems to make sense. I am tired of dabbling in these things, and want to master them, and that seems perfectly in line with my other opportunities and paths.
- Peter
PS. Given that I am now trying to sharpen my writing skills, I plan to write more in this blog and promote it more, which in turn will give me incentive to write in it more. Some things are simple better written (although they may become, or be based on videos as well)

2011-06-24T20:43:00.001-07:00

Mosh pit at my cousin's wedding!

Putting Philosophy To Good Use

2011-03-29T00:22:00.001-07:00

The idea that God is uncaused is a Lynchpin of Theism. It is the basis for arguing God as the uncaused cause and unmoved mover of many philosophical argument for God, and is a view almost universally held in Theistic definitions of God.

Theist explanation of God’s being uncaused:
God exists because he is necessary (being necessary, in part, means being uncaused)
God’s is necessary because of his nature
Nature -> Necessity -> Existence

Now I know that to a lay-person (or even someone actually trained in philosophy) this may look like a chain of causation. And that's because it is, and one that can be undone quite easily.

The Following argument assumes three views on God and one view on metaphysics: 1) that God is a necessary being 2) God’s nature makes him necessary 3) God is outside of time (relevant to a hypothetical rebuttal) 4) self causation is impossible (because it is absurd)

P1. If God is not necessary, then he must either be contingent or not exist
P2. God is not contingent (this is because God is here defined as necessary)
SC 1: If God is not necessary, then he does not exist (This is the trichotomy of P1 reduced to a dichotomy by P2)

P1a. God’s nature is either self-caused, caused, or non-existent
P2a. God’s nature cannot be caused (Again, this is because God is here defined as necessary)
P3a. God’s nature cannot be self-caused (because self-causation is here regarded as impossible)
SC2: God’s nature does not exist (last option left in the trichotomy of P1a)

P1b. If god’s nature does not exist, then he his not necessary (necessity would be part of God’s nature the way having 4 sides is part of the nature of a square)
P2b. God’s nature does not exist (SC2)
SC3. God is not necessary

P1c. If God is not necessary, then he does not exist (SC1)
P2c. God is not necessary (SC3)
C: God does not exist.

This argument is a bit redundant, because SC2 is enough to show the conclusion provided we assume the premise P: all things which exist have a nature. But I wanted to be through.

For P1a, some might try to argue for a “not-caused and not self-caused” option. While that may be conceivable, the Theist explanation of God’s being uncaused I outlined above IS the explanation of a forth option for P1a. To say God’s nature is exempt from causation because God is necessary would be a circular argument. A second option would be to say that God’s nature is outside of time, and only things which being to exist need a cause. However, being outside of time is part of God’s nature. We have reached another circular argument. We could run the entire above argument again replacing necessary with eternal, and a few other relevant swaps and reach the same conclusion. A final option is to simply assert that God’s nature is exempt from all causality (without appeal to necessity or eternality). To do such is to abandon reason altogether and just start making shit up.

In short, there is no good way to argue that God is uncaused, and what sort of God is a caused God? No God. That's what sort of God.

People who argue that God is necessary because of his nature fail to realize the circularity of this position. “God is uncaused because he is a necessary being, and he is a necessary being because of his nature, and his nature exists because he is a necessary being”. No God, then no God’s nature. God’s nature must be caused or self-caused. If self-causation is impossible, then god’s nature is impossible, and therefor he does not exist. The alternative is circular argument or bare assertion.

S= Necessary. T=Contingent. ~E= Does not exist. N= Nature. L= Self-caused. C= Caused.

~S > (T ^ ~E)
~T
C: ~S > ~E

N(L^C^~E)
~C
~L
C: N(~E)

~N > ~S
~N
C: ~S

~S > ~E
~S
C: ~E

2011-02-26T15:27:00.001-08:00

There is a drunk townie talking to the great chernesky about his pet racoon. This needs to be on the internet.

2011-01-05T16:21:00.001-08:00

Chillin out at my sisters.

Scientism

2010-12-27T18:36:00.000-08:00

Scientism is a phantom in the mind of the religious apologist.
Anytime anyone gushes over science’s power to tell us about how the world is, especially compared to religion’s woeful inability to do the same, they are accused of scientism.

The Religious tell us that science is not the only way to view the world or know things. This is at least philosophically plausible, but there is never any follow through. Never are we told in what other way we might view the world, other than through the eyes of faith, and never are we presented with a convincing case for why doing so might be better.

Take rationalism for example. It is a non-scientific way of viewing the world which not only tells us little of any worth about our universe, but resulted in the current popular view that philosophy is simply pointless and abstract. Empiricism and science tell us much more about the world than rationalism ever could.

While empiricism has limitations, we need look no further than philosophers such as Charles Sanders Peirce, William James and John Dewey for examples of thinkers who not only attack rationalism and classical empiricism, but put forward a positive alternative in the philosophy of pragmatism. Each of these thinkers believes that science is the best way to discover the world, while realizing the provisional nature of truth.

VenomfangX only offers flawed analogies and faith to base our world view on.
Science, and philosophies like pragmatism give us the best conclusions humans have to work with, yet recognize the open-ended nature of the search for knowledge.
Take Shawn’s flower example in his video on scientism.Shawn tells us that science is unable to tell us the quality of something, and that we need a statement of intention or comparison in order to recognize what it is.
I will take the second point first.

He shows us an image of a flower, but what makes an image of a flower could, theoretically be specified in a scientific way as to make it possible to recognize an image of one. See also: facial recognition software.

Such software works because the qualities of a face can be quantified in such a way as to make said qualities recognizable to an algorithm set to seek for them. A human has no magical ability to recognize a quality of something a computer does not. Point refuted.

To the first point, Shawn opens himself to more philosophical dilemmas than he bargained for when he makes this point. David Hume, in his book Dialogs Concerning Natural Religion (A book Shawn would do well to read), points out that the inference of design can work in ways unintended by the likes of Shawn. Also, Hume’s character points out that the argument is put forward in a way that even if we could conclude that god does exist, we would not be able to use inference from design to establish anything else about him.

Hume’s Dialogs were on natural religion. In other words, what might we say about god without the aid of something like a holy text. But what if we add the bible to the equation?

When I look at a painting, I may not be able to say for sure who painted it. However I can say a lot about who painted it, and I could tell the different between a work by Abbey Heller Burnham and VenomFangX.

How they painted, their medium, the brush strokes they uses and what that implies about their skill level, etc. all of this gives us scientific grounds on which to draw an inference.

Shawn tells us of the biblical purpose of marriage is as being between one man and one women.How then might we infer such a purpose? Such a things as human relationships are open to infinite interpretation.Science can rule a great number of interpretations of what the universe is like unlikely or invalid through discovering the way the universe actually is through testing to see how it works.

For example, the evidence overwhelmingly suggests that the universe is billions of years old and that life has evolved. Any interpretation which contradicts these facts is almost certainly not true. See also: creationism.

The bible must give us some grounds on which to infer that it is true. We cannot point to things we might want to believe are true about the world and then say that the bible affirms them as true. This is simply an appeal to consequences.

If we do not believe in the bible, then we have no reason to believe in the value of human life, and if we don’t do that, then the sky will fall and reality itself will become unglued. If that is the argument, the idea of a noble lie becomes justified. Something which even though it is not true, we must believe it anyway for our own good, could be argued for one the exact same grounds.

To say that human life possesses value which cannot be derived from some specifiable trait that human possess and other beings do not is to assert that humans possess some intangible quality which gives them a value. Such an assertion must be justified on way or the other, and not merely presented as an article of faith. Rationalism has tried to do just that, and its failure to achieve that goal is lost on Shawn.

To return to Hume, if Shawn told us he meant to draw superman, but instead we see Spiderman, this would be proof that either Shawn is deceiving us, or given that we see Spiderman, Shawn is not the person that drew what we are looking at.
I once lost my phone and had to go to the campus police to claim it. They asked me to describe my phone. Had I done so incorrectly, they likely would have assumed that I was not the actual owner of my phone and not returned it to me. Having my phone returned to me was contingent on correctly describing it.

What might that mean then for the god of the bible? Well it is indisputable that the bible contains know scientific inaccuracies. Those who try to say otherwise usually make excuses to the tune of “well that is superman! I was drawing him from a rare comic in which he dressed up as Spiderman and gained his abilities”. Or “god had to put things in ways which people in that time in place would understand”. This of course implies a problem of hermeneutics, in which in order to understand the bible, we must actually seek to understand the way in which people reading it at the time of its writing would have understood it. At which point, the fact that modern scholarship has torn the bible to shreds makes holding to it even more dubious.
The point here is that the bible fails the test of establishing proof of ownership of the universe by quite a spectacular degree. Why should I give god back his cell phone if he can’t even tell me what it looks like beyond just guessing?
It is more than valid, by any reasonable rules of inference, to conclude that the god of the bible did not create the world.

The chance of a lifetime which you are robbed of by believing it is the ability to take part in the discovery of the way the universe actually is. If we are to truly understand our place in the universe, then we must know what that universe is like, and that is what science does for us. Philosophy, not religion, is the process of putting the pieces together to form that understanding.
The philosophy of science is far more complicated than most people realize, but this in no way validates any of what Shawn is proposing.

http://www.ahbcommission.com/

2010-12-25T20:00:00.001-08:00

The doctor rode a flying shark through the sky like santa. What have you done with your life recently?

2010-12-16T13:31:00.001-08:00

Protest going well. Lots of honks.

2010-12-13T10:56:00.001-08:00

SNOW!

School is winding to a close

2010-12-04T13:33:00.000-08:00

I still have an 8 page paper to write, another paper to revise for the millionth time, and another 5 page paper. After that, another paper for a final and 2.5 in class finals. Once school is over, I am trying to learn Dreamweaver so I can make web pages and create custom content for sites I am already on, like Tumblr, Blogger, etc. I also have 3 videos of live shows I need to edit multiple camera footage from, make a DVD for one of them and also a DVD for a show I taped years ago and recently discovered the disc never made it to the band members (that’s what the into was I posted on YT and Vimeo). I also want to complete my master work of this year, which is a compilation of footage from the local Zombie Walk back in October. Aside from video, I have numerous writing projects to work on.

I also plan on traveling to my sisters for Christmas and visiting friends in the NYC/NJ area. Then in January I am going out to California to visit my brother. I will likely be visiting the San Francisco area, but as I will be with family, I am not sure if I will be able to hang with any interwebz peoplez. Sad, because who knows when I will hit the west coast again.

This of course is not an exhaustive list of projects I have lined up. Every now and then I catch myself asking why I burden myself with so many needless tasks. I don’t think I am a workaholic, because my efforts are often uneven. But I feel sort of useless if I don’t at least intend to burn the candle at both ends. I want to reach a point in technical skill where actualizing my artistic vision is relatively effortless and I possess the knowledge and skill set to do so.

Picture of The Day (11-15-2010)

2010-11-14T21:33:00.000-08:00

Return of Pumpkin Cat

2010-11-12T11:27:00.001-08:00

So much to do, so little time

2010-10-07T08:28:00.001-07:00

Trying very hard to buckle down and “take care of business” as the Hell’s Angels say. School work, personal projects and all that sorta thing. I still want to actually write a book, rather than just keep say I plan on it, so I am trying to write every day, even if only a little. Past few days I have been pretty much bereft of mental energy, but I am trying to push through anyway.
Four papers for school due next week. I have never enjoyed the process of writing for school in all my time and papers there. I can rattle of quite a lot, quite easily when I don’t have to keep looking at sources and thinking about how to structure it for grading. I have been generating a lot of ideas to write on I am sure will make their way out there in some more or less complete form eventually.
Also coming up with ideas for a web series with my roommates; something along the lines of “it’s always Sunny in Philadelphia”. Also want to plan some more ambitious and serious short films and other video projects, as well as more photography, read more, learn more programs, listen to more educational stuff like audio books and taped lecture series, the list goes on.
In short I am just trying to get my priorities in order. Even this is an exercise in doing that. Now time to get back to work on other things I suppose.

Just Thoughts (09-18_2010)

2010-09-18T14:19:00.000-07:00

I was bored and made an itemized list of statements on my “about me” of my Facebook pages. This was #4

“I make two assumptions whenever I meet people a) they are an idiot till proven otherwise b) all attractive women have significant others. these prove to be true 90% of the time.”

I should add as far as attractive women go, I have notice upon reflection, that of those 90% that are taken, 90% are with either douche bags or totally average guys.

9% of the single attractive women are either bat-shit crazy or raging whores.

I am only half serious about all this BTW.

Change cant come soon enough

2010-08-26T15:23:00.000-07:00

I have move back to where I grew up. for reasons too long to explain, i am not moving into my new apartment till the beginning of next month. I cannot wait till that happens. i have been staying in my friend Brendan's living room, sleeping on two cushions from a love seat. my back is killing be and i am simply tired of being around people all of the time. i cannot wait to have my own space and lock myself away in my room, and only come out for school, food and the bathroom for a good, long while. I am taking a rare opportunity to use an actual computer to right this while my friend is at work. I switched my phone to an unlimited data plan and have been using it constantly out of sheer boredom.
i sort of wished I had stayed at my sister's house longer, but I didn't want to be a burden on her.
I seem to fall into the same tedious routine of killing time every day, and am feeling totally drained on all levels. I have been going to the bars a lot, which is something i would otherwise almost never do. I don't drink that much and the nights recently when i have had more than a beer or two, i have ended up regretting it.
this is the total opposite of the lifestyle i normally choose to live. I was talking to a friend that said she is a home-body and wishes she would be more social and interact more to get over things like social anxiety. i personally have struggled with social anxiety, but I have largely gotten over it, i simply choose not to socialize that much because it i rarely find it all that fulfilling unless it is with interesting people, which in all honestly are hard to come by.
I left here five years ago, only to come back and find that most of the people I know are more or less in the same place they were when I left. this would not bother me all that much, except for that fact that I am more or less forced to interact with people because of my current living situation. i want to associate with more people that have their shit together, have ambition, are going places, or all of the above.
for all my self imposed isolation, I honestly enjoy my life. i get the social interaction i need in small doses. I make and watch Youtube videos, i pick out good shows to watch, I read, I write, i think, i play video games, i mindlessly surf the net. i have all i need to keep my mind occupied and intellectually stimulated.
the only thing i really lack is a significant other for close companionship, but in my life that really hasn't worked out so well. for one thing, all the best girls, (the interesting, intelligent, attractive ones I have things in common with) are either taken, live far away, are bat-shit crazy, or all-of-the-above. in the rare times when i have been with someone, we just never seemed to really connect. I am so used to doing my own thing that I am honestly downright neglectful. it also doesn't help that common interests often only turn out to be apparent. "you spend too much time on your computer" is something i commonly here.given what said computer has to offer,I think it is somewhat justified, but in all honestly it was also the fact that i found it difficult to have any sort of meaningful conversation with them for various reasons. I find my self taking most things more seriously than other people and i find their seeming lack of interest in anything i care about disheartening. as hard as it seem to find the right person, i don't really care to settle for less, because the wrong relationship always seems to turn out to be for of a hassle than it is worth, no matter how good the sex is. I figure i will either find that one person and settle down possibly forever (not out of "true love" but because it is too difficult and i am too lazy to find someone else that suits me) or I will die alone an angry old man, yelling at teenagers to stay the fuck off my lawn.

Picture of The Day (06-16-2010)

2010-06-16T19:32:00.001-07:00

Picture of The Day (06-15-2010)

2010-06-15T23:10:00.001-07:00

Picture of The Day (06-12-2010)

2010-06-12T22:26:00.000-07:00

Picture of The Day (06-10-2010)

2010-06-10T22:43:00.000-07:00

Edited in Photoshop.

What I am Tired Of About Facebook

2010-05-11T14:01:00.000-07:00

It seems that a lot of new Facebook groups are asking you to join the group before you get to see the content of whatever the group page is. This is because they are looking for ways to access your account information so they can sell the info to data mining companies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSCuRhmSxAU

On second thought, I don’t need to know what sort of Jedi I am.

What’s wrong with MySpace?

2010-04-30T08:59:00.000-07:00

No really, what’s the problem? It seems that the site is all but dead. Most of my friends seem to use Facebook almost exclusively. Their MySpace pages left as abandoned relics of a by-gone era, but I am not totally sure why. Did you all just get sick of people making obnoxious profiles that assaulted your ear drums with the atonal products of someone’s abysmal musical taste? Or is it just that Facebook is more “professional”? At any rate, I think there are at least a couple of things that MySpace was good for, like music, which are missing from Facebook, but oh well, time rolls on. Maybe the death of MySpace is a byproduct of the decline in the “coolness” of social networking sites in general. Once your parents added you and can see all the pictures of your drunken debauchery and can see that you hooked up with Sally so-and-so and that now she is going to “the clinic” the social networking party was over. Now there is nothing left but having to hit the ignore button on all those damn Farmville requests your friends keep sending you. I am sorry; I have real computer games to play.
PS. Employer, potential employers and college admissions boards are watching your FB page too.

Humpty Dumpty Scares Children

2010-04-22T21:22:00.001-07:00

A comment I got on my newest YT video reminded me of a comment I got on flickr awhile back about the Humpty Dumpty statue outside the children's entrance to the public library.

My Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tooltime9901/

Winter Does Not Last Six Months

2010-03-22T02:07:00.000-07:00

It is March 10th and it is 58 degrees here in Illinois, and it is going to be in the mid 40s for the foreseeable future (not that the foreseeable future is very long when it comes to weather). My question for all you people that insist winter lasts six months in the north is this: what’s happening? It’s a rhetorical question, because the answer is clear, winter does not last six months, and with the possible exception of a late season snow storm, the worst is already over. Granted, it is already in the mid 70’s in Florida, but that’s beside the point. No one ever said the north was as warm as the south, but this past winter, thanks to the magic of Facebook status updates, I have been exposed to plenty of people complaining about winter and the more I started thinking about it, the less objective I think people are being about the whole subject.
What it really boils down to is that fact that there is only a couple if things that I truly hate about winter and those are: days it is so bitter cold that it hurts to be outside (usually 20 degrees or less) and snow storms. Really, anything above 35 degrees is bearable, and if you don’t think so, then I am sorry, but you are just being a pansy. Also, snow storms are infrequent, maybe happening 20 times a winter, and after the road crews do their job, you don’t even really think about it anymore. They are a minor and very temporary inconvenience. So then, how much time do we northerners typically have to endure such condition? Well, this usually varies from winter to winter. Three years ago, it was in the 40s for most of January. The past couple of winters though were far worst. None the less, on average it is not until mid-December that temperatures really start to fall into the unpleasant zone. Certainly no one is out sun bathing it November, but it is really nothing when compared to the brutal colds of January. The truly cold temperatures usually last from mid-December until mid to late February. That’s 2 months. November and March are bearable, and by April, things are usually on the upswing, save for the occasional freak snow storm (I actually remember it snowing in may at Lake Clear once).
My point is that WINTER DOES NOT LAST SIX MONTHS! So stop being such cry babies about it! If you truly have such delicate sensibilities that you think anything below 70 degrees is winter and have not concept of spring or fall, then by all means, move south, but for the rest of us, let’s try to be objective and take winter in stride. I think this is yet another case of confirmation bias, and remembering the hits and ignoring the misses. It is easy to bemoan the horrors of winter when it is -15 degrees out, but those days are the exception, not the rule. On paper, they are certainly a smaller part of your life than you think they are.

Black Spandex

2010-03-21T02:32:00.000-07:00

After spending an hour or so out of my late afternoon on Friday browsing though the book stores Borders and Barns and Nobles (across the street from one another) and having spend all morning writing a paper, and being over tired from not getting enough sleep the night before, I decided to treat myself to a Panera bread (in other words I was just too much of a lazy bastard to cook anything). After ordering my usual Sierra turkey sandwich, I went over to the part of the counter where you pick up your order. Also standing nearby was girl with cute ass in black spandex pants. At first glance, I thought she was in her early twenties, but on second glance, I thought she might be younger, perhaps in 16-17ism. I then briefly pondered the ethics of checking out possible jailbait. This was followed by the thought that, if she was in fact jailbait, then what in the hell is she doing wearing spandex pants in public? Further inspection however bolstered my confidence, although I am not totally certain, that she was of legal age. Moral crisis resolved, once her name was called to get her food, she stepped forward to get her food, having been leaning against the wall. It was then that I took a good, long (perhaps too long) look at her ass. I am not saying I am totally proud of the fact, but as I mentioned before, I was over tired at that point, and I tend to come a bit unglued under such condition. Once the thought occurred to me that I had been staring too long, I wondered how she might react if she turned around at that moment and caught me staring. I thought she might shoot me an indignant look and maybe make some sarcastic or snide comment to me like “get a good enough look at it”. But right then and there I knew what my response would be, “yes, would you like to check out my ass now” and face it towards her and then say “no one wears pants like that in public if they don’t want people looking at their ass, and it fine ass it is, by the way”. I say all of this because really, this sort of thing is actually out of character for me. Not so much in though, but in action. What surprised me about myself at that moment is that I felt as if, had I been presented with the opportunity, I would have actually done it. Again, maybe I was just over tired, although I did go home and spend the next 6 or so hours reading almost non-stop, when usually reading has me ready to take a nap after less than an hour, no matter how interesting the material is. I don’t know, I think I am becoming more of a crazy asshole in my old age. Maybe I am destined to become like my grandfather, who in his eighties tried to get my aunt’s housekeeper to have sex with him. Rest in Peace grandpa.

Holga

2010-01-31T20:36:00.000-08:00

I just ordered a Holga camera and 3 rolls of B&W 120 film. I am very much looking forward to seeing what this thing can do. The Holga is a medium format “toy” camera with a plastic lens. It is very limited mechanically speaking. In most ways it is only a bit more sophisticated than a disposable camera, but it has quite a cult following, because it can produce some rather interesting results. I was able to get it for only $20, which is the cheapest I have seen it. Now I need to figure out a way to get my scanner, which has the ability to scan 35mm and slide negatives to scan the medium format negatives. I would also like to pick up a TLR medium format camera for some more serious medium format work at some point in the future.

Get Ready

2010-01-27T23:01:00.001-08:00

Still have yet to write a part two of my travel blog, but right now I am hard at work of my massive counter-strike against Rational Dawn. Stay tuned

Road Trip (Part 1)

2010-01-22T22:16:00.000-08:00

Due to unforeseen circumstances, I left for Ashley’s (HealthyAddict’s) house 2 hours later then I had planned. The road were mostly clear of traffic, other than the inconvenience of having to pay the tolls (boy I wish I had the I-Pass for that trip) until I got onto 294. Traffic was fairly heavy from the time I got onto 294 pretty much until I was in Indiana and got on 65. Once on 65 there was little traffic I drove through the desolate, baron wasteland that is Indiana. The trip to Columbus took about 7 hours and was largely uneventful and rather dull, although I did see an anti-evolution and pro-life sign outside Indianapolis. Around 9, which is when I had originally planned to be in Columbus, I got a call from Ashley saying that she too was delayed due to a meeting at work. I joked that the bible tells us that all things work together for good for those who love god. a bit behind schedule, I arrived at Ashley’s house and after dropping my stuff off in the living room we decided to go out to have a drink and chat as to avoid waking up her boyfriend who had to work early the next morning. We went to a place called the surly girl in an area called the short north (you may have seen this in her ‘discover Columbus’ promotion video). We chit-chatted for about an hour or so, and I found it rather odd and amusing that they had a rather homo-erotic AIDS public service ad in the men’s room that showed the torso of a shirtless man and the slogan “stay negative”, placed right about the urinal and in the stall. After returning from the bar we chatted as quietly as we could for a bit longer before going to sleep. The next day we deliberated on what to do for awhile. Some consideration was given to the idea of visiting some sort of art display of a concert cornfield, but our enthusiasm waned once we found out that it was not stalks of corn, but giant cement ears of corn. Instead we opted (for whatever reason, given that it was only about 30 degrees) to go have ice cream at a specialty ice cream shop, which was also located in the Short North area. I have to say that I am quite the fan of ice cream and the flavors we tried were certainly different. We shared a cup that came with three scoops, one of which had balsam needle in it, another was made with goat cheese and the third was chocolate, cinnamon and Cayenne pepper (the last of which I didn’t care much for). After having ice cream we went back to Ashley’s place for a bit, where we recorded the videos most of you have probably already seen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2rU2M1Oqlw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJyzrRx5YgQ

After that was finish we snapped a couple of pictures, and Ashley then had to dash off to work and I headed to a place called Midwest photo exchange which was in Columbus because I was looking for a sync cord for my flash, as my wireless system did not come in before I left on the trip and I planned on using it more then I actually did. I should also say here that while I was showing Ashley my camera gear I was being immature and flashed my camera directly I her eyes at half power, which is temporary blindness mode (full power being permanent blindness mode) and so I apologize again for that. After wasting time at Midwest photo, I wasted nearly another half hour in my car trying to get the flash cable crap to work because I did not want to swallow my pride and admit I did not know what the fuck I was doing. I finally did simply go back into the store and it turns out that one of the transmitters was faulty and so they gave me a new one. This then put me a bit behind schedule again going to James’ (DasAmericanAtheist’s) house.
It was about a 3 hour drive to James’ house, but I got lost going through Pittsburgh so it took longer. Driving though that part of Pennsylvania and a little bit of West Virginia was extremely hill. I am used to driving on highways that maintain more or less a smooth and level grade, even when going through mountains, 87 going through the Adirondacks comes to mind. After some difficulty, I did finally arrive at James’ house, only to once again drop off my things, and be given a brief tour before heading out to the bar. This place, which I believe was called the Haufbr äuhous (the äu is pronounces Oi in German), and as you might imagine from the name it was a German style beer hall that had its own brewery. It was on the river across from downtown Pittsburgh, quite a nice place. There we met up with Nick (Ahughman08) and a couple of James’ college friend, who names I do not recall, but one looked like Egon from Ghostbusters and the other looked like Lex Luther from Smallville. The 5 of us had a debate about religion which was quite fun despite Lex Luther’s initial objections. James’ also bragged several times about finding and watching “two girls, one cup” in its entirety, as if that were something to brag about.

On the drive back from the bar, James and I discussed the now ongoing video series by Veritas et al on negative atheism and, once back at his apartment, James read me an argument he was working on which was an atheist version of a cosmological argument. His girlfriend, who had also go to sleep for need of being up early for work, had left me a note which she signed as miss DasAmericanAtheist. I thought that was pretty clever. But alas, not longer after our return from the bar I was pretty well exhausted and so I called it a day and went to sleep.

Too lazy to write more right now. stay tuned for part two coming soon.

40 is the new 70 (degrees)

2010-01-04T11:42:00.000-08:00

Some how, 40 degrees does not feel nearly as cold when you are in Florida. Yesterday morning when I left Illinois, it could not have been more than 15 degrees out. It was the sort of cold so bitter that it stung my hands. Then I rolled down my window to pay the toll, the window got stuck and would only roll up a few centimeters at a time and so for a few agonizing moments I had to endure driving 70 mph down the highway with the window open. Not a pleasant experience. Safely in Florida now, I took a walk around the block with only my hoodie on, which is something I could not even dream of doing for the past couple moths now. It is certainly warmer here then in New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania or anywhere else I have been for that matter. It has been a long couple of weeks, and it is winding down now. Only a week till school starts back again. I am going to spend this afternoon getting caught up on YT videos to try to get back in the swing of things.

Atheism and Death (A Reply)

2009-10-09T14:12:00.001-07:00

Since I spent the time to write a script for my latest video, i figure I might as well make the most of it and post it here as well.

In his latest video, Theatheistantidote, hence forth referred to as Brock, said that the problem with atheism is that it does not promise life after death. He then went on to state that there is no point in living if we are without purpose, individually or collectively. All of this is nothing new, and it is also all largely irrelevant to the truth of atheism. Atheism is not about coddling people with a raft of promises, that’s the job of religion. Really this amounts to nothing more than an appeal to consequences.
None the less, I see there are several issues with what he said that I was to address anyway.
1) No god is needed for the afterlife
Simply put, it possible to conceive of an afterlife that does not involve a THEOS, a personal god. Reality could be infinite, or there could be an infinite number of universes, in which case there would have to be one in which you “survived death” all be it in some bizarre fashion. It is also possible that there is a personal god, but one that is far more reasonable that the Christian god and judges you on how well you lived your life and not what you believed or if you knew the secret password (the secret password is: JESUS!). We could all be just thought in the mind of an impersonal super-consciousness. The list simply goes on and on, and that’s not to say that any of these things are true or even likely, but they are possible and as far as I can tell, at the least they are just as likely as any religious conception of the afterlife.
2) No one knows what happens after death
No one knows for sure what happens after death. More and more I see the need as person to stress my own believe in the virtue of Socratic ignorance, because all too often, because I am an atheist, I am mistaken by people like Broke as having a definitive answer on subjects such as death. NO ONE knows from whence the universe came and NO ONE knows what happens when we die. PERIOD! I will even admit that perhaps, as Hamlet says, there is enough suffering in this life to seriously contemplate ending it all if not for “that the dread of something after death, The undiscovered country from whose bourn No traveller returns”, but I will also say that part of what makes life worthwhile is the fact that I don’t know everything, that there is still a journey of discovery to be made. Religion would only serve to rob me of that.

3) Objective purpose is conceptually impossible
Sorry Brock, that’s just the way it is. Purpose implies intention, intention implies mind, and mind = subjectivity. Objective purpose is conceptually impossible. Now I know you may try to argue that god gives us something like “ultimate purpose” but really Brock, all that amounts to is say “atheists don’t have someone with enough authority to dictate to everyone what to do”. Also, I should add that having eternal life is not the same as purpose. You could live forever purposelessly. Likewise, and perhaps more importantly, having purpose is in no way a guarantee of satisfaction, contentment, happiness, or anything else for that matter, Nor is not have purpose necessarily an impediment to any of those things. Really, the reality of religious purpose, at least nearest I can tell of the Christian world view, is that you must fulfill what God wants you to do and you have to TEACH yourself to be happy submitting to HIS plan. Living your life for a purpose someone else dictates to you hardly seems like something the religious should go out of their way to brag about.
4) This is purely an ego problem
This whole issue constitutes a problem with the Ego. Unwilling to accept that we are finite being on a small rock circling (and yes I know it is actually an ellipse) an average star which is merely one of SEXTILLIONS of stars. Unable to bare the fact that we are yet another animal destined to parish like all others, the ego of man stands up and revolts. Screaming and shaking its fist at the uncaring sky saying “I cannot continue to live if the whole universe was not created for me! How can I be just another animal?!”. The response to this is GET THE FUCK OVER OURSELF! What have you done what’s so great? Why this sense of entitlement?
5) Christianity is nihilistic to the core

In reality, if you are to take the Christian worldview seriously, and what is yet to come in the hereafter will eclipse all that is in this world, then why should you not wish for death on a daily basis and actively place yourself in situations where you are likely to be martyred? Certainly Christianity contains more than enough scriptural basis for you to “take up your cross and follow Jesus” into life endangering peril. At the least you should actually take seriously Jesus’ commands to “behold the lilies of the field”. Really, according to Christianity and the words of Jesus, the shorter your life, the better; the deeper into poverty you are, the better, because greater will your place be in the kingdom of heaven. The message of Jesus was not “Carpe Diem” it was grit your teeth and bare this life in order to gain the hereafter. It is a denial of life, not an affirmation.

6) How we should face death and life without purpose? By living the best we can here and now.
What is comes down to is that all that any of us are really able to do is make the best of what little time we have in this life. If there is any meaning to life, it can only be found through actually living it. If you live your life to the fullest and are annihilated after death, then what have lost? Well you may have wasted a few decades, but there will be nothing there of you to care or regret this lost time. If there is more after death, whatever that may be, at least you can go out with the knowledge that you lived your life the best you could, and really that all any of us really can do in the end.

Survey

2009-09-22T17:27:00.001-07:00

035: Heavy Survey
Do humans carry souls?
Not likely

2. What about animals? .
Also not likely

3. Was September 11th a government conspiracy?
It was a conspiracy of 19 Muslim hijackers.

4. Do you believe a plane actually hit the pentagon?
all evidence points to YES

5. Are the methods the U.S. is using to handle illegal immigration satisfactory?
No

6. Do you think that John F. Kennedy's assasination was a government conspiracy?
No

7. Do you believe that the moon landing in 1969 actually happened?
Yes

8. Do you believe in ghosts?
No

9. Can subjection to violence in media lead to violence in the real world?
rarely

10. Did O.J. Simpson murder his wife?
All the evidence and statistics point to yes.

11. Do you believe going to war in Iraq was the right thing to do?
We went in on bad evidence, which due diligence would have expose as bad. however, once we were in, leaving would have done more harm than good.

12. Can we as people ever co-exist with each other peacefully?
On what scale? People do all the time, they just draw arbitrary distinction of “otherness”

13. Do you believe the course of our lives are pre-determined by unseen/unknown forces?
Yes, but not in any sort of supernatural way.

14. Has democracy made the world a better place?
Yes and no

15. Was the governments reaction to Hurricane Katrina acceptable?
No. they should have had plans to deal with a cat 5 DECADES in advance.

16. Are celebrities punished justly for crimes they commit?
rarely

17. Can we ever win the war on terror?
Wars on ideas tend to fail. The definition of terrorism is so vague WE are terrorists as well.

18. Are professional athletes over-compensated for their abilities?
Yes.
19. Did the fabled people of Atlantis ever exist?
No.

20. Are there other intelligent beings in the universe?
Seems fairly likely statistically speaking given that there are 72 sextillion stars in the visible universe and who knows how many planets.

21. Should the 1st Amendment protect all forms of expression, including those that may be offensive or harmful to others?
Yes on offensive, no on harmful.

22. Is it better for one innocent man to be sent to death or 5 murderers to be pardoned?
No.
23. In the case of homosexuality, do you believe it's sin?
Don’t believe in the concept of sin and cannot thing of any good reason to condemn it under any other moral model.

24. Can the human race ever help the planet Earth to recover from the ecological damage it has suffered?
Not totally

25. Will race/ethnicity always be an issue amongst differing peoples?
I think race is not actually the real problem. People are scared of difference and race just happens to be one of the more tangible differences between people.

26. Are you for or against abortion?
Pro-choice is not “for abortion” it is for choice.

27. Are you for or against capital punishment (i.e. the death penalty)?
I don’t think it works to deter crime and I don’t believe the state should be in the revenge business, but I am not crying for the people that get killed either.

28. Do you practice any form of religion? Why?
No. because all reason and evidence points to them being human fabrications.

29. Do you believe that the writings in the bible can still apply to today's world?
So of it can, but that’s not saying too much really. There is plenty of wisdom from all over the world and people really need to broaden their horizons beyond the bible.

30. Has religion made the world a better or worse place?
The effects of religion are manifold and likely incalculable.

I will...

2009-08-30T20:41:00.001-07:00

eventually get off my lazy ass and make a video and write new blogs and all that jazz soon. I swear!

Summer Classes are over

2009-08-05T12:43:00.000-07:00

Now only 20 more days till fall class. I hope to get a lot of reading, writing and other projects done in the meantime.

Idea For An Internet Show

2009-07-18T17:47:00.000-07:00

More and more I have been thinking of creating an internet show that uses live action, action figures, Legos (with green screens to scale them to each other’s size) and picture cut outs as well as 3D animation combined together with programs like 3Ds max and After Effects to create one giant, crazy show. Part of me wishes I could make it into something serious, but in reality I know that comedy is about the only direction one can really go with such as thing. I have some action figures collecting dust in a box in a closet, as well as some Legos. I have seen a couple of things like it on YouTube, but nothing quite like I have in mind.
I am certain though that it will mainly fall into the sci-fi/fantasy genre.
My cousin and I used to make parodies of the X-Files with action figures when we were kids. I am still going over ideas in my head, but I think this is a good way to get practical practice using a whole host of programs in an integrated fashion which I may do as a side or full time job in the future.
Also, I think I could recruit people from YouTube to do the voices and even some script writing and music.

Coining a New Phrase

2009-07-13T22:29:00.000-07:00

I am Coining a phrase, It is “transformers 2 bad” which is when a movie is so bad that it is actually great because its entertainment values comes from bashing the movie or listening to other bash it.

Fox On A Tombstone

2009-07-05T18:31:00.000-07:00

I was out taking pictures when I spotted what I thought was a cat at first. it was in fact the fox that lives in the wooden area between this cemetery and the river. i have seen him/her at the river a couple times on my daily walk. sadly, i went to slap a mosquito and scared it away. i wish I could have got a better shot of it. I have never seen a wild animal ask in a manor I am accustomed to seeing a domesticated one act. come to think of it, I don't think I have ever seen a dog lay on top of something like this, only cats.

The Epic Plot Holes of Transformers 2

2009-06-30T17:25:00.000-07:00

I found this highly amusing and true

http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/smg-transformers-10-questions.html

I Was On The Atheist Experience

2009-06-22T08:30:00.000-07:00

I am the first caller

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/1693806

My former Teacher Arrested For Child Porn

2009-06-20T10:18:00.000-07:00

My old study hall teacher in sixth grade was recently arrested for Child Pornography.
he actually was fairly well know in the community, as this article explains

Above is what he wrote in my year book.

Laci's Boob video

2009-04-24T20:09:00.001-07:00

every women with breasts that watched Laci's new video was thinking "don't demystify them for men bitch, I don't want to have to pay for my own drinks at the bar!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihFPUgjIWMc

YouTube - Hulu Merger

2009-04-16T20:20:00.000-07:00

I have come to realize that Hulu merging with YouTube might make it so MORE people see my and other original content providers videos because new traffic will be brought to the site that otherwise would not have been. so maybe it will not be such a bad thing after all.

Mac Wars

2009-02-27T16:39:00.001-08:00

Some people might tend to think that I am of the mind that getting rid of religion will get rid of war. This is simply not the case, as I realize that the reasons for war are deeply rooted in human psychology and are not simply all caused by religion. Sadly, after religion is gone, there will still be things such as nationalism and limited resources to fight over. I do think that not all hope is lost and we are simply doomed to fight each other forever though, s I think that many of the source have both common causes and common remedies, such as expanding the scope of who we see as a member of our ‘tribe’.

Let me tell you though what I think will be the next great, post religious war. I believe that the next great war will be between Mac and PC users. Well actually, as Mac might be construed as a religion, this might instead be the last great religious war. At any rate, In the year circa 3428, at the command of the 11th clone of the supreme leader Steve Jobs, Mac users will engage in ‘OS Jihad’ in which they will attempt to bring new meaning to the words ‘Mac world’ though an orgy of violence against all those that still use a PC. They, despite there numerical disadvantage, believing themselves to the smartest, hippest and most creative people in the world by virtue of owning Mac, will rise up and declare that all infidels that do not convert to Mac-ism and follow the prophet Jobs will be killed!

I am joking about all of this of course, but I wrote this after watching a documentary called “Macheads” which confirmed my belief that some people have a religious like devotion to Mac and their leader, Apple CEO Steve Jobs. There is one part of his Mac world documentary where they talk with a sense of foreboding and trepidation that is Mac goes under, they might have to one day use a PC!!! Oh, the horror!!! “We would have went into the dark ages if apple went away” is a quote from one woman. Really?! The dark ages?! You don’t say! After watching it, I wanted to take clips from the documentary and juxtapose it with clips from a video on how a cult works. The parallels at points were scary.

As I have stated before in a video, I have no ill-will against Mac. I do not own one because I simply do not have the money to buy one with the sort of power that I want. Nearest I can tell, Mac is a very stable platform, but you are stuck mostly with the hardware you get (IE you cannot just go out and get a new video card, except on the most expensive models) and most people seem seduced mainly by the granny-ware. Personally, having experience with audio, video, photo and 3D modeling and compositing, I am not exactly someone who needs iMovie to do all my thinking for me. The reality with software is that most of it that is worth a shit actually requires something of an effort to learn, regardless of the system you are running it on. 99.999999% of all easy to use software lacks any significant robustness. Also, I hear the point that, allegedly, all creative professionals use a Mac. However, when I look at what the industry leading software is, it is things which are cross compatible (like Photoshop) or even a couple of things that are PC only. My point is I fail to see the true substance behind all the hype, but boy do they cost a lot.

TAG is still a failure.... Sorry!

2009-02-23T15:53:00.000-08:00

I just watched Matt Dillahunty’s debate with Matt Slick over his version of the TAG (Transcendental argument) on the Atheist Experience. While I think that Dillahunty did a much better job then the last time, when a different host debated slick, he still failed to get at the most effective and simple refutation of TAG which is to point out that the argument is circular. TAG claims that there are logical laws which are absolutes, that those absolutes are mind dependent, and then that because “our minds disagree” we cannot be the source of those absolutes, so there must be an absolute and perfect mind behind reality. The problem here is that in a hypothetical universe without minds, either these laws would not exist, and thus not be absolutes or they would exist, making them non-mental. If these laws are mental then the absolute nature of these laws is contingent on there being an absolute mind, which is what the argument attempts to conclude. Ergo, it is circular. It simply amazes me how many theists parrot this argument mindlessly none the less.

Let me also state that Matt Slick is a whinny bitch. I actually could not make it thought all 5 pars of the video without having to turn it off for wanting fly to Idaho and smack him upside the head.

The debate can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/FFreeThinker

Another atheist experience channel
http://www.youtube.com/AtheistExperience

The official Atheist Experience website
http://www.Atheist-Experience.com

Matt Slick’s version of TAG
http://www.carm.org/secular-movements/atheism/transcendental-argument-existence-god

Twitter

2009-02-10T18:06:00.000-08:00

I have jumped on yet another bandwagon

http://twitter.com/Tooltime9901

Renewed Motivations

2009-02-06T05:41:00.000-08:00

I have been struggling to gather motivation to write a book on the subject of atheism. As of late I simply have not felt like doing much productive. That was till this morning when I went on YouTube and watched a video someone had sent me as an “Epic Fail!” candidate by a user named Since33AD with a link on the side to the conservapedia article on atheism. Needless to say, the article was so full of bull shit that I feel a new breath of life come into my desire to write my book. Needless to say, the conservapedia article was nothing more then a totally bias and heavy handed bit of atheist bashing filled with the usual tripe.

Religulous

2009-01-18T21:09:00.000-08:00

So, the other thing which I have been pestered about as of late is whether or not I have seen Bill Maher’s movie Religulous. I can now finally say that I have now seen it. my over-all opinion of it is that it was better then I thought. It was not a heavy handed, in your face, fuck all religious people, sort of movie one might expect it to be. I am still amazed on a daily basis how the faithful can simultaneously constantly be on the retreat when it comes to giving reason and evidence and yet at the same time be on the advance when it comes to asserting their dogma is “truth”. How is it that the human mind can call something “truth” then they cannot even give a valid reason for why it should be believed, let alone for why it actually is the truth. That said, the movie was somewhat of an edifying experience, but over all told me nothing I did not already now, and in some ways only dealt with things on a very surface level.

Venomfangx's site

2009-01-17T16:26:00.000-08:00

People keep asking me about Venomfangx’s web site. I have to say that my basic take on it is that he created it as a place where he would be the king of the castle. This is in keeping with his narcissistic and dictatorial personality. As for the content of the site, it is filled with the sort of creationist drivel we have all come to expect from mini-Hovind.
If you are up for some masochistic lulz, the URL is www.venomfangxsite.com

Daleks

2008-12-26T08:13:00.000-08:00

my current preoccupation is a simply yet addicting game called "Daleks" based on the BBC show Doctor Who.
it is free online HERE

basically, you are on a board where you have to avoid the Daleks while tricking them into crashing into each other. you can also teleport to a random location on the board, and you have a sonic screwdriver that kills any Daleks on nearby squares.

it seems simply, but it is addicting.
Try it out.

Roger Moore Says Bond Is Too Violent!

2008-11-11T13:36:00.001-08:00

I Personally am a big fan of James Bond, but I have to say that I was somewhat perplexed by this news article where Roger Moore (a former James Bond himself) said that he thinks the Bond movies have become too violent.

http://movies.yahoo.com/mv/news/va/20081111/122643635200.html

JAMES BOND IS AN ASSASSIN!!!
HE HAS A LICENSE TO KILL!
WTF?! is he supposed to have tea with people?

Getting Back In The Swing

2008-07-25T17:37:00.000-07:00

I really need to get back in the swing of writing in this thing. I opened it for a reason, and that reason was as a sort of supplement to my YouTube account.

Recently, I began a discussion with HumbleOrthodox that wound up placing me in the position of being opposed to what a number of atheist define atheism as, and that atheism would then have a burden of proof placed on it under my definition. The strange thing is, that even when I debate people this issue, and even when I come very close to convincing my self I am right, or I am close to seeing how they are actually correct, I seem to be never arrive at a conclusion. So resolving this has become my current preoccupation. When I have figured it all out, I am sure I will make a video.
Currently thought, still reject the idea that “weak atheism” is a lack of belief in god, because ask the question “do you believe god does not exist?” and they would have to say “No” to that as well. For one thing, I argue that this would be to say they the do not believe that god does not exist, which would be a double negative that lead to the positive that they believe that god exists. Not only would the be absurd, but it would contradict their first claim that they lack that very belief.
So this is a to be continued, but hopefully I will get better about writing in here.
Be sure to RSS.
Peter

Contribute test

2008-02-20T09:05:00.000-08:00

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Community, Atheism, Women, And The End of Religion

2008-02-10T11:48:00.000-08:00

First, The Video In Question

I think that I need to clarify some of my own positions for anyone that thought I might have been saying in my last video “what do we need more women on YT for”? To put the question I was asking into context, note that when replying to Veritas48’s question of what is the end goal of atheist activism on YouTube, I answered by saying that I did not speak for anyone but my self and that different people had different goals. I think it is fair to say that some people simply want to engage people who hold an opposing point of view in a philosophical debate. Others are attempting to disabuse all theists of their religious beliefs; or in other words, to end all religion. I personally find that to be a rather lofty goal. My own personal goal is an intermediate step in which atheists, threw openly challenging religion are able to break down some of the intellectual hubris conferred upon the theist through their numerical advantage. Once their confidence in making crazy assertions such as certain lifestyles are wrong or that the soul enters the zygote at the moment of conception, on the basis of little more then their own religious dogma is shaken and instead they are forced to make real arguments basis on things such as logic, reason, and evidence then I think we are half way to defeating religion all together.
So, in other words, not all atheists are out for the same goal. Please don’t make me resort to a Venn diagram. Even if we were to find a way to talk about a movement, such as one to end religion, of which atheist, amongst others are a part, then I would still like to ask Msnomer71 the question of whether is it true or not to say what would really be needed is more good ideas and strategies, and perhaps simply more people participating in general. If that is the case, then what does she see women’s unique contribution to that as being?
The notion that in my be useful to create an atheist PR campaign, as it were, was something that was mentioned at the 2006 ‘Beyond Belief’ conferences, and even the people in attendance could not come to any sort of agreement about the idea (and I did watch all 10 or so hours of Beyond Belief).
I do not see atheism in general as having a coherent front. Therefore, it is hard to give a face to atheism. Even if TheAmazingAtheist has the most subscribers, with the possible exception of is recent tirade against Texas, he does not speak for me. No doubt there are a great many things of which atheist can come to a general agreement about. This is similar to the way in which, despite all of the various sects and the differences in opinions between the individual members of Christianity, they are still all part of the cult of Christ. If they are not, then whatever else they are, the term Christian would not apply to them. Likewise, Msnomer71 and I, along with untold numbers of others, may share many similar goal and ideas, but what I see as being needing is a discussion on what would be a better term then atheism to describe this theoretical group of people, as well as what would make up the anti-religion manifesto as it were, of this group. To put it into political terms, what is the name of our “party”, and what are the planks of our platform. I do not feel that I should be the umpteenth person to articulate the argument that the term atheist is too misunderstood, and has accrued too many negative connotations to be totally tenable for the task at hand. Conversely, there is something to be said of the point that attempting to promote a new meme may not be worth the hassle and will likely lead to more disagreement and confusion.
I open the floor to discussion on these subjects.

Who I Am (Part 1)

2008-01-24T10:40:00.000-08:00

I currently am in the early thralls of a cold. I feel stuffy and itchy. I hate colds; they sap me of much of my motivation. So in order to try and remedy this situation I have taken an aspirin.
At any rate, I am writing because I have created a new blog today, am I am the kind of person that feels compelled to create when I see a space of potential. What I mean is that I am the kind of person that when I go into a store and see sketch notebooks and other painting or drawing supplies, or artistic tools of any kind, I feel the urge to create something. The sketch book, note book, or whatever presents itself to me as a blank slate of potential. Let us put aside the fact for the moment that for one thing, I cannot draw worth a damn and best intentions as I may have, I often find that I am unable to follow throw on many of the numerous task I undertake. Regardless, this kind of sensing of some sort of “diamond in the rough” goes for all sorts of things, such a music, photography, video, web sites, blogs, etc. I find my self looking at objects such as cameras, camcorders, sketch books, note books, etc, not to mention web sites like My Space, YouTube, Google Page creator or geocites, and software like Photoshop, premiere, flash, Dreamweaver, Acid Pro, etc, and thinking to my self “what could I do with this”.
I guess I am a bit of a renaissance man that is not particularly very good at anything; or rather I am definitely not very good at some things and pretty decent at others. I suppose one would have to look at the fruit of my labors and decide for them selves. I am always trying to expand my skill base and become better and more proficient at the things I already know how to do.
So, over the past couple of years I have bought my self a camera, camcorder, guitar, bass, digital recording studio, a computer, and various photo, video and, audio editing software. With all of that, I have set to task on various artistic projects, and with the advent of sites such as My Space and YouTube, I now have a means of showing my creations to the world (or at least to the few people that give a shit).
I almost forgot to mention that I like to write, but perhaps that is obvious because I am doing just that right now. I am also a fan of Philosophy, as my blog title no doubt implies, and I often like to write out my rambling thoughts on various topics (like what you are reading now), or I like to post them as video blogs on YouTube. I will no doubt talk more about YouTube in the future, and with any luck, I can seduce a few of my YouTube Fans to read this blog.

That’s all I have to say for now, I will try to write more tomorrow.

P.S - links to some of my music and photography work are avalible on my MySpace profile, a link to which is avalible on my profile for this site.

First Day of My New Blog

2008-01-24T08:46:00.000-08:00

So, I basically started a new blog on this site on a whim. I am not sure how often I will post on here, and I will probably also post the same things on my space as I do here. I am really not sure what I am going to use this blog for at this point in time.